Palestinian youth activist and former prisoner Saleh al-Jaidi was seized by Israeli occupation forces in a dawn raid on his family home in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. He was previously arrested three times before. In 2010, he was held for four months and in 2015 for six months in administrative detention without charge or trial.

In 2011, he was again seized by occupation forces and imprisoned for three years. On Friday morning, 22 September, Israeli occupation forces invaded the camp and his home, ransacking his family home, overturning plants and upending furniture.

Al-Jaidi is a well-known youth activist in the camp, which has come under frequent attack by Israeli occupation forces. His brother, Yazan, is also imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces.

The infamous so-called “Captain Nidal” is the Israeli occupation commander in the area, known for both his threats against the youth of Dheisheh to “make all of you disabled” by shooting them in the legs and his specific threat to Raed Salhi, 22, killed by Israeli occupation forces when they invaded the camp and his home on 9 August.

Video of the arrest of al-Jaidi by Israeli occupation forces was distributed by Dheisheh al-Hadath, a news page serving the camp:

The young man – unarmed when he was shot – suffered in a hospital for nearly one month under armed guard, denied family visits even as he lay in a coma until his death on 3 September. Before Israeli occupation forces invaded his home and shot Salhi, he had received a call from “Nidal” in which he threatened to “shoot you in front of your mother.”

Despite the ongoing attempts to instill a reign of terror in the camp through ongoing invasions, attacks and extrajudicial executions of Palestinian youth in Dheisheh camp, the camp’s youth have retained their spirit of resistance, confronting Israeli occupation forces whenever they invade the area.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Saleh al-Jaidi and urges greater international mobilization against the ongoing invasions, attacks and arrests directed at Palestinian youth. We urge the freedom of all 6,200 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and we demand that “Captain Nidal,” as well as the Israeli occupation commanders and officials that authorize his threats and terror against the youth of Dheisheh be held accountable and prosecuted for his crimes.